When Europeans landed in Australia it was said that the Aboriginals were already a dying race. After 40,000 year of successful domination of the this land their population was actually growing. Though not changing in a European sense, into industrialization, over several centuries they could have formed larger federations of tribes.
Cave paintings in the Sahara show people with boomerangs as well as bows and arrows. Apparently, the Australian Aboriginals did not find bows and arrows that useful on the new continent but the boomerang suited them well. The boomerang could be easily carried on long hunts. Running with a bow and a sheath of arrows over the shoulder or in the hand was too cumbersome. There is no reason to believe that they had not had the bow in times passed.
Anthropologists estimate that the Aboriginal population grew from a quarter of a million 10,000 years ago to a million in the eighteenth century. This increase is quite fast in historical terms and there is no solid explanation for it.
Something had to be improving in either an environmental or societal way. How could life remain difficult for 30,000 years then suddenly get better? They did adopt fish farming. This would improve life for people on the coast. They had no need to build fixed settlements. There was always another fresh area to move on to.
People spread from Africa, usually along the coast as they used up resources at each place. When they arrived in Australia the land was so vast this type of competition ended. It must have been a hard existence at first. As "tricks" for surviving became cultural knowledge things obviously improved.
Cave paintings in the Sahara show people with boomerangs as well as bows and arrows. Apparently, the Australian Aboriginals did not find bows and arrows that useful on the new continent but the boomerang suited them well. The boomerang could be easily carried on long hunts. Running with a bow and a sheath of arrows over the shoulder or in the hand was too cumbersome. There is no reason to believe that they had not had the bow in times passed.
Anthropologists estimate that the Aboriginal population grew from a quarter of a million 10,000 years ago to a million in the eighteenth century. This increase is quite fast in historical terms and there is no solid explanation for it.
Something had to be improving in either an environmental or societal way. How could life remain difficult for 30,000 years then suddenly get better? They did adopt fish farming. This would improve life for people on the coast. They had no need to build fixed settlements. There was always another fresh area to move on to.
People spread from Africa, usually along the coast as they used up resources at each place. When they arrived in Australia the land was so vast this type of competition ended. It must have been a hard existence at first. As "tricks" for surviving became cultural knowledge things obviously improved.
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Anthropology
